Sunday, 11 September 2011

Reflections on 9/11

I remember lying awake that night, wondering how the world I knew had changed completely and with the terrified thought that this could be the beginning of the end.

In the last few days I've been reading, watching and listening to people reflecting on that day and what it means to them and the world.

Some said the Bush administration had a John Wayne attitude using 9/11 as a pretext to go into Iraq and that was a fatal mistake.

Some are only now trying to come to terms with survivor guilt, having escaped the World Trade Center and trying to find some meaning in their lives.

Some describe terrorism not as something that is definitively black and white but like a cancer, something we have to live with but can't outright destroy it.

Some say we should be paying more attention to the soldiers fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan because back home we are doing nothing for the war effort at all.

Some want us to be aware that the victims of 9/11 are not just those who died 10 years ago on September 11 but also those affected by al-Qaeda in various countries including Somalia, Mogadishu, and Yemen.

Some say the United States' biggest blunder was Abu Ghraib -- those shocking images of torture and abuse of detainees will live on in perpetuity as a reason to take revenge on the US.

Some say on that day the US lost its steadfast belief of invincibility -- and nothing can ever bring that sense of invincibility back again.

We are still trying to figure out if things are better 10 years on -- it depends on who you talk to.

Let us hope that we are edging closer towards better cultural understanding and communication on a world scale. We need to because the survival of mankind depends on it.